Cooped up in a Camioneta

Yesterday I completed the western hemisphere on my world map. Yes there are fewer counties in the western hemisphere and the second half of the world will be tougher, but it was a pretty exciting event. That morning I incorrectly bought more minutes for my/Lydia’s cell phone, but it was with her families store so it was less of an issue to fix. While drawing the map, two boys from area came over to see what I was doing. It was nice to have a little bit of fun conversation with them, learning their names, how old they were, etc. I worked well into the afternoon working towards the halfway goal. That night Lydia and I cooked up some interesting smelling chicken which turned out tasting pretty good, but might have been the root of my irritated stomach this morning. This morning we had a hearty breakfast and then she took me on a gorgeous scenic hike to one of her schools that was at the top of this hill, or mountain for us Floridians. While Lydia had a meeting with the teachers I took the opportunity to find a nice grassy spot in the sun to take a very early siesta. This afternoon we took a camioneta to Chimal, which is a larger city and much busier, crowded, and much more hectic than the somewhat quiet peaceful streets of Patzun. Lydia had another meeting, this time with all of the healthy schools Peace Corps volunteers in the area. In a strange way it was nice to great other Americans in English. After a bit of shopping I was ready to get back to Patzun. However, not before the camioneta experience I had been waiting for. The best way I think to describe it is complete invasion of personal space. It was very crowded and with people getting on and off there was a lot of leaning, getting leaned on, into and around. It was interesting. Tomorrow we will be doing more traveling a bit more site seeing. I am excited to see more of Guatemala.